Fiber-reinforced composite materials composed of an inorganic fiber and a matrix resin have heretofore been used widely for sports applications, transport machinery applications, general industrial applications, etc. because of, especially, their excellent mechanical strength.
However, such inorganic fiber-reinforced composite materials are insufficient in damping nature even though they are excellent in stiffness, and therefore they have a problem that composite materials are scattered when being damaged on impact.
Combining different types of fiber in an inorganic fiber-reinforced composite material is known to produce changes in weight, strength, impact resistance, and damping nature. Thus, to improve properties of an inorganic fiber-reinforced composite material, it has been proposed to combine different types of fiber in various ways (see Patent Document 1).